What if they made certain changes to crafting?

[LordArtemis]

I was thinking of posting the following suggestion...what if they made the following changes to crafting...

 

1) Remove all crafting material names, and instead give them generic names, like "level 1 metal".

2) Allow players, based on current crafting level, to extract relevant crafting material from any node in any location.

 

If they were to do something like this, players would be able to extract certain types of crafting mats based on their crafting level from anywhere in the known galaxy. This, IMO, would have two notable effects...

 

a. Lower level crafting materials would become more rare and therefore more valuable.

b. Higher crafting materials would become more common and easier to find.

This would also further consolidate inventory space, since there would be generic mat terms for each crafting level.

 

What do you guys think? Would this be something that would hurt the high level crafting mat market too much? Comments welcome.

[DarthCasus]

While I'd like a cleaner crafting system that has its benefits in the game's current status (an unnoticeable few are even using any of the lower level items), removing crafting mats and making them generic would only push the game further into the casual friendly and borderline braindead territory. I'm not a guy that makes spreadsheets to keep up with all the mats scattered through my 30+ characters or makes my living in the game from playing the gtn with mats/crafts but I don't think we have to make it even easier. I also like that the mats were numerous and touched on parts of the Star Wars EU really well.

 

If anything, they should introduce useful schematics that offer something for gathering all sorts of material to craft. Not a 1 time use novelty item or anything like the Dark Project stuff (exotic mats being available from Ops and gtn only? No thanks) but rep mounts, devices to draw random pets, mats to build devices for certain new datacrons/codex, build legacy gear. SOMETHING.

 

As for the nodes idea, it's interesting but that's what conquest rewards and the minor credit sinking gather missions are for. Nodes were meant to supplement players with easily gathered mats but didn't touch mats of greater rarity. A legacy crafting bag rather than devoting a bay and a half to mats would be lovely though.

[Vhaegrant]

Going to link to this blog -> http://www.swtor.com/blog/crafting-changes-fallen-empire

 

They've already removed a lot of materials from the game, pretty much taking it down to two types of material at each gathering level. Not sure taking the name away would make it any more transparent, just remove a sense of actually crafting and gathering.

 

They've changed gathering from nodes and with level sync means going back to earlier worlds and gathering is more viable.

 

Stack limits are through the roof on materials now so hoarding resources has never been easier.

 

The biggest issue is that there is absolutely zero reason to craft these days. Maybe for those with progression raiding intentions but for all the other players you can get by with a combination of level sync bolster and the cheap planetary vendor mods.

[Cathalo]

Crafting could be viable again if the current content wasn't so easy that you can sleep walk through it while wearing virtually nothing. Right now, companions are basically elite world boss mobs so you don't need any gear to get through the content. In fact, the most relaxing way to get through the game now is to take a healer class and then a dps companion. You don't need any gear for the companions and only green gear for yourself and you will steamroll through heroics while drinking your Jack and Coke, without ever dropping below 80% health unless you pull the entire instance.

 

There is virtually no reason to buy anything off the exchange, anymore. Since you will be capped out on most planets just wearing the stuff you find or get from missions.

 

The only reason to go into crafting is for the gathering skills so that you can make money off the exchange. But, that's going to be a dead market soon once people figure out that you don't need blue or purple or orange stuff to level up anymore. Plus, you can get blue stuff for free by soloing the heroics which are all easy mode now.

 

The only demand left in the market is that of idiots who don't understand that gear doesn't matter anymore.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Cathalo

[JattaGin]

The following question is meant serious: What purpose does crafting have these days?

 

I have all professions maxed, some on two or three characters. But since 4.0 I barely crafted anything, because I simply don't know what and why. The only crafting I did was for the DvL event. And sometimes I craft pieces of the old PvP armor sets (I don't remember the names).

 

I can craft all armor sets from way back in the days. I can craft all space ship updates. All weapons. All stims. But nobody needs or wants any of this. There simply is no need for any of this anymore. And the mods, armorings etc. I haven't even bothered with since 4.0. Maybe engame raid mods would be useful, but this is not my cup of tea anymore.

 

I have literally hundreds of thousands pieces of mats in my storage, almost all of them in stacks of 999 + additional stacks. Green, blue, purple. I honestly don't know what to do with them. (On top, I have many thousands pieces of various Jawa scrap thingies in my storage.)

 

For me, crafting has no purpose anymore. I therefore would be fine with any changes they make with it.

Edited September 30, 2016 by JattaGin

[Tsetso]

The following question is meant serious: What purpose does crafting have these days?

 

I have all professions maxed, some on two or three characters. But since 4.0 I barely crafted anything, because I simply don't know what and why. The only crafting I did was for the DvL event. And sometimes I craft pieces of the old PvP armor sets (I don't remember the names).

 

I can craft all armor sets from way back in the days. I can craft all space ship updates. All weapons. All stims. But nobody needs or wants any of this. There simply is no need for any of this anymore. And the mods, armorings etc. I haven't even bothered with since 4.0. Maybe engame raid mods would be useful, but this is not my cup of tea anymore.

 

I have literally hundreds of thousands pieces of mats in my storage, almost all of them in stacks of 999 + additional stacks. Green, blue, purple. I honestly don't know what to do with them. (On top, I have many thousands pieces of various Jawa scrap thingies in my storage.)

 

For me, crafting has no purpose anymore. I therefore would be fine with any changes they make with it.

 

Seems the only purpose crafting has is conquest, augmentation kits and augments.

[Cathalo]

Seems the only purpose crafting has is conquest, augmentation kits and augments.

 

I'm not even sure that crafting has a purpose for those, since most established characters already have those or they have characters who can craft them on their own.

 

The rule of economics is that people live on scarce resources and will always need more of those resources. In this game, there is no need for resources. That is why the crafting system is broken. Players can get good enough equipment on their own, without needing to craft or buy stuff from the exchange.

 

When you can get good stuff without having to buy it, then the whole market becomes ****. A wise Jedi once taught me, "If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish he will eat for a lifetime.".

Edited September 30, 2016 by Cathalo

[Damask_Rose]

Seems the only purpose crafting has is conquest, augmentation kits and augments.

 

Cosmetics.

[DarthCasus]

Cosmetics.

 

Finding people with ancient (now unavailable) schems is the real challenge these days. HERE'S THE END GAME YOU ALL WANTED

[LyraineAlei]

I too did more crafting pre-4.0.Medpacks, Mods, armor and weapon shells for keeping companions somewhat close to my gear levels, medpacks that were just superior to purchasable medpacks.

 

Now, I just craft the kits for crafting until I hit crewskill cap for all of the crewskills for the achievements. I might craft Anodyne, or whatever the new highest tier of medpacks are, medpacks, but when I can easily overlevel a planet and then not even need medpacks...

 

And then overleveling through the mods (plus level sync bring character down to planet level if overleveled and cutting off stats anyway) makes Cybertech less useful to me (the grenades are nice, and the speeders are fun once, but still, after a while...). Companions don't need gear to keep updated (which is a nice QOL bit) so I armormech and armstech less (and then assemble outfits from my Collections and drag out a weapon choice from Collections as well).

 

From that stance, I kind of like your "collecting at-level mats while collecting from nodes" idea (though I usually found myself beyond my at-level range). The further consolidation of mats might save me inventory space, but if not for all of the types of materials, I would not have bought with credits three extra Legacy Storage bins. Maybe I would have to fit all of the Legacy Armor Shells, bit I might not have since my collecting of those dropped off after 4.0 when I have little to no reason to craft and mail mods and modded armors around my alts.

[Andryah]

I was thinking of posting the following suggestion...what if they made the following changes to crafting...

 

1) Remove all crafting material names, and instead give them generic names, like "level 1 metal".

2) Allow players, based on current crafting level, to extract relevant crafting material from any node in any location.

 

If they were to do something like this, players would be able to extract certain types of crafting mats based on their crafting level from anywhere in the known galaxy. This, IMO, would have two notable effects...

 

a. Lower level crafting materials would become more rare and therefore more valuable.

b. Higher crafting materials would become more common and easier to find.

This would also further consolidate inventory space, since there would be generic mat terms for each crafting level.

 

What do you guys think? Would this be something that would hurt the high level crafting mat market too much? Comments welcome.

 

Crafting in most MMOs gets devalued/marginalized somewhat over time. That is a core issue as an MMO proliferates more gear itemization over time. More so in some MMOs, less in others.

 

Your suggestions on the other hand, would offer no real value to addressing any marginalization to crafting whatsoever. And I'm sorry, but calling materials by generic mat terms is a bad idea in a game where many people actually enjoy embedding (RPing) themselves into the SW universe. Next you will suggest that all gear itemizations have their names removed and "Armor-<interger goes here>" generic naming used in replacement.

 

I really think you need to start making your own MMO so you can apply some of your ideas and see the results for yourself. In my view, most of your "ideas" to "improve" the game are not well thought out in the context of the broader player base and the game overall.

[Andryah]

If anything, they should introduce useful schematics that offer something for gathering all sorts of material to craft. Not a 1 time use novelty item or anything like the Dark Project stuff (exotic mats being available from Ops and gtn only? No thanks) but rep mounts, devices to draw random pets, mats to build devices for certain new datacrons/codex, build legacy gear. SOMETHING.

 

^^ Agree. There should be rare, random drop, schematics that crafters will farm for or pay for (because they are interesting and in demand) and players will pay good value to obtain crafted pieces. By making them rare random drops, it generates some actual classic MMO game play for crafters to seek, learn, and market to the larger player base.

[Thoronmir]

True story:

 

I've always been an avid crafter in every MMO I've played. I enjoy it. Sometimes, I delete a capped crafting alt just to make a new one. But my primary motivation has always been self-sufficiency. I am a rock. I am an island. I like not relying on other players to keep my guys clothed, equipped, fed, and ... well, implanted. When playing a new MMO, I usually start with whatever crafting skill seems most advantageous to the class I play: Synthweaver in SWTOR since I knew I'd play Sages, Woodworker in LOTRO so my Hunters had good bows, etc. Regardless how I start, eventually, I get around to mastering every trade. Sure, my Synthweaver kept my Sage dressed well, but before the time when Commendations became uniform and ubiquitous, I needed hilts and crystals ... so I made an Artificier. It wasn't long before I made a Cybertech to create mods and armor mods. My original Cybertech was a Smuggler (named Fillion ), so I needed an Armstech to make barrels and an Armormech who could make supercool shirt/vest combos. Biochem was the last member to join my Crafting Cadre. Most of those crafting alts have been deleted and replaced ... some more than once.

 

The last wave of consolidation greatly improved SWTOR crafting. Both the increase in stack size and the reduction to two types of materials per tier resolved all my crafting storage issues. I'm content with the current state of crafting, but I wouldn't object to some further refinement. Changing the materials' names (e.g., "Desh" becomes "Metallic Substance 1" ... or whatever) might make things easier on new players who haven't yet memorized the names. I have no inherent objection to a recipe that requires:

 

[4] Generic Power Crystal 3

[6] Ubiquitous Relic 3

[1] Universal Binding Compound 3 (the name I just made up for vendor-purchased Crew Skill materials)

 

I'm unclear about the OP's suggestion regarding nodes. Are we discussing some mutated form of Omni-Node ... the "Shmoo" node, as it were? My Bioanalyst can farm critter guts and pieces from the same node that my Artificer gleans magic rocks and old bric-a-brac from Grandma's attic? I'm not sure I'd like that. Under the current system, my gatherer of critter guts and weeds need only compete with other Bioanalysts for nodes.

[IanArgent]

Crafted gear is superior to heroic-reward-box gear of the same level. This doesn't matter for levelling/story content, but it matters for non-endgame group content (lowbie PvP and FPs).

 

The Level Sync caps ought to be set to allow exceeding them with temporary boosts, to allow for stims that aren't presence stims to be useful.

 

Gear crafting isn't really relevant at endgame either. Were it up to me, I'd change that, so that you had to take your Ops drops and run them through a crafter to reap the benefits; or at least give that option. IOW, instead of a boss dropping a "set token," they'd drop a mat that a crafter needed to create a set-bonus armor plate/barrel/hilt.

 

I'd also extend the mechanic we've seen in alliance alerts where you "turn in" mats and Alliance boxes to advance quests or increase influence, so that gathering and crafting can be used to advance quests and influence.

 

And now I'm thinking that companion gifts should be moved out of the "Prototype/Artifact grade" gathering skills and into the crafting skills, and spread out such that each crafting skill can make certain types of gifts. Though that would probably also require a refactor of the gift types, or there would be significant goofiness.

[Jamtas]

Crafted gear is superior to heroic-reward-box gear of the same level. This doesn't matter for levelling/story content, but it matters for non-endgame group content (lowbie PvP and FPs).

 

The Level Sync caps ought to be set to allow exceeding them with temporary boosts, to allow for stims that aren't presence stims to be useful.

 

Gear crafting isn't really relevant at endgame either. Were it up to me, I'd change that, so that you had to take your Ops drops and run them through a crafter to reap the benefits; or at least give that option. IOW, instead of a boss dropping a "set token," they'd drop a mat that a crafter needed to create a set-bonus armor plate/barrel/hilt.

 

I'd also extend the mechanic we've seen in alliance alerts where you "turn in" mats and Alliance boxes to advance quests or increase influence, so that gathering and crafting can be used to advance quests and influence.

 

And now I'm thinking that companion gifts should be moved out of the "Prototype/Artifact grade" gathering skills and into the crafting skills, and spread out such that each crafting skill can make certain types of gifts. Though that would probably also require a refactor of the gift types, or there would be significant goofiness.

 

agree with much of above. Leveling crafting is what has been gutted by the ease of gameplay, level sync and heroic lockboxes. While you can craft better than the blue lock box items, the issue is while it is crafting, you've already outleveled it. changing gear for leveling is hardly needed anymore.

 

I like the idea of making companion gifts. More dye modules would also be nice. But a huge issue that blocks crafting is the CM.

 

Do you want to buy a crafted crystal that only gives you 1, or get that CM one that allows you to claim infinite copies from collections - and in more desirable colors. Same with armor - crafted gets you 1, collections allows you to have infinite across all servers if you unlock.

 

Hard to compete on that level.

[UmbralSpirit]

Crafting? What crafting? I know there are crewskills but it's new to me that there is any crafting in the game.

[Deewe]

I was thinking of posting the following suggestion...what if they made the following changes to crafting...

 

1) Remove all crafting material names, and instead give them generic names, like "level 1 metal".

2) Allow players, based on current crafting level, to extract relevant crafting material from any node in any location.

 

If they were to do something like this, players would be able to extract certain types of crafting mats based on their crafting level from anywhere in the known galaxy. This, IMO, would have two notable effects...

 

a. Lower level crafting materials would become more rare and therefore more valuable.

b. Higher crafting materials would become more common and easier to find.

This would also further consolidate inventory space, since there would be generic mat terms for each crafting level.

 

What do you guys think? Would this be something that would hurt the high level crafting mat market too much? Comments welcome.

On paper sounds a good idea though it will make the day of the gold farmers as they are mostly the only ones who'll camp farming with lowbies.

 

To be blunt right now crafting sucks. I think I never saw such a useless crating system in any of the dozens of MMOs I played through the years. That plus it's a pain in the but.. to store all these mats. At least it's not even trying to be a fun or entertaining experience.

 

 

The biggest issue is that there is absolutely zero reason to craft these days.

 

The following question is meant serious: What purpose does crafting have these days?.

 

I'd say they should just get rid of crafting once for all and continue selling stuff in the CM to drain out people wallets.

 

As they're not going to improve crafting if at least they could

1. Have mats automatically stored in a Lecacy specific mats storage
   
2. Get rid of all the intermediary components we have to craft
   
3. Replace the need to gather or buy grey mats with a fixed price fee on crafting
   

 

That would be of an improvement for sure.

[ikinai]

I don't craft much of anything anymore, except if I need a specific item, like a kit or aesthetic gear. Weren't we supposed to be getting the ability to make tunings ourselves at some point?

[Deewe]

I don't craft much of anything anymore, except if I need a specific item, like a kit or aesthetic gear. Weren't we supposed to be getting the ability to make tunings ourselves at some point?

lol, you wish!

 

(Yeah it was in beta)

[IanArgent]

agree with much of above. Leveling crafting is what has been gutted by the ease of gameplay, level sync and heroic lockboxes. While you can craft better than the blue lock box items, the issue is while it is crafting, you've already outleveled it. changing gear for leveling is hardly needed anymore.

 

I like the idea of making companion gifts. More dye modules would also be nice. But a huge issue that blocks crafting is the CM.

 

Do you want to buy a crafted crystal that only gives you 1, or get that CM one that allows you to claim infinite copies from collections - and in more desirable colors. Same with armor - crafted gets you 1, collections allows you to have infinite across all servers if you unlock.

 

Hard to compete on that level.

 

Depends on the cosmetics of them item. For my trooper, I chose a "uniform" for Havoc Squad that included a dye pack only available through crafting, and a chest plate that had to be crafted as well, not currently available in collections. I like the look of a fair amount of the crafted armors as well. For crystals, I chose a crystal type available only via the Rakghoul token vendor (black/green). Across my characters, I've got a bunch of outfit designer slots taken up by crafted gear. And there's some crafted main-hands/offhands I'd love to be able to use the look of, only because their stats are not up to par, I can't. If they can't put a weapon slot in outfit designer, at least make all crafted/dropped weapons orange-with-mods. (There's already drop armor that is orange with mods, as a precedent).

[Jamtas]

I just think they need to have weapon designer out with 5.0

[LyraineAlei]

I just think they need to have weapon designer out with 5.0

 

That would be helpful inmaking Armstech more relevant again. Synthweave/Amormech have been able to keep afloat because of their looks for the Outfit Design thing.

[IanArgent]

I just think they need to have weapon designer out with 5.0

 

Agreed. I wonder what the hold-up has been?

[DreadtechSavant]

Names are not important.

As for gathering based on craft level? This can have merit but all that's really need is to allow about 2 levels worth of mats on each planet to address the speed of which characters level. Which is what it used to be to some degree pre 4.0.

 

I agree with you OP, crafts need to be looked at again by BW. It should be for them to decide what changes are made. I don't think it working well now as most crafts have become pointless and worthless. Some level 61-64 stuff is still OK and dyes too. Other than that, not so much. Some crafted items does still have cosmetic value. Just not for levelling.

 

 

Hope 5.0 does bring changes but not really expecting any.

Edited October 2, 2016 by DreadtechSavant

[Tsetso]

I just think they need to have weapon designer out with 5.0

 

Or remove stats from gear. That way people can use whatever they find aesthetically pleasing. With bolster/level sync stats don't matter anymore anywhere outside of hm/nim ops and with no new ops coming ....